Concorde Fire Defeats Derby County Wolves 4-2 for Seventh Place

NewsJul 17, 2010

CARSON, Calif. (July 17, 2010) – Concorde Fire U-17/18 defeated Derby County Wolves U-17/18 4-2 on Saturday afternoon on July 17 at the 2010 Development Academy Finals Week to take seventh place back to Atlanta. The open match featured six goals, three of those coming in a late flurry as the midday sun contributed to the fatigue of a hard-fought week of games for both sides.

John Davidson started the scoring with two quick goals at the end of the first half. Ehiosasele Aburime added the third and forth for Concorde either side of a TJ Van Slooten strike for Derby County. Reed Losee finished the scoring and a late spell of three goals in three minutes with a finish from inside the six yard box in the 89th minute.

"I thought the performance today was a lot better than what we had," noted Concorde Fire head coach Ken Kurilec. "We settled down and played a little bit. We got some of our injured players back, which made a big difference. I was happy they closed out well."

Derby County found themselves in the seventh place match after finishing fourth in a very competitive Group 1 in the U-17/18 division, despite winning the U-15/16 age division just one year ago. Concorde Fire could not shake their slow start in Group 2 to finish higher in the standings but came back today with an impressive goal scoring display to end on a bright note.

After a slow start to the game, Davidson popped up to inject life just four minutes from half when he converted a Kevin Rodriguez corner by rising at the penalty spot to head home his first of the game. Just two minutes later, he was in the right spot at the right time when a Carlos McCrary shot was deflected into his path in the box. Davidson reacted well and helped the ball along with his head to beat a wrong-footed Andrew Grinwis in the Derby County goal.

Aburime would continue the headed goal trend after just four minutes into the second half. Concorde worked the ball wide right to Sawyer Hemmer who played a pinpoint cross into Aburime’s head in the box. The Concorde frontrunner made no mistake, planting his header inside the near post to make it 3-0.

As the pace of the game deflated under the hot California sun, there would be a drought of goals until the 86th minute when TJ Van Slooten was finally able to beat an impressive Brendan Moore in the net for Concorde. Moore made 12 saves on the day in an open match that saw 44 shots altogether from both teams.

Aburime quickly restored Concorde’s three goal advantage by using his speed to race down a Moore goal kick that skipped through the Derby County defense. Outrunning the last defender, he was able to control and finish his one-on-one chance with Grinwis to score the fifth goal of the game.

Derby County, however, was not quite done yet and was able to pull another goal back in the finals moments of the game when substitute Eric Weberman cut in from the left and hit a cross with his right foot. Losee was first to react to the quick deflection and hooked the ball in with his left foot from inside the six to cap the scoring and the match.